US sales 2017 first half: Mid-sized Sports segment

Sales in the Mid-sized Sports segment fell by 14.5% so far in 2017, a reflection mainly on the dwindling popularity of the mighty Ford Mustang. However, while the headline figure is bad but not horrible, what should be more worrying is the fact that the segment has plenty of new cars such as Chevrolet Camaro, Audi TT, or the Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman twins, after an early rise their sales have all declined recently. What’s more, Dodge seems to be doing wonders with the Challenger, given how old that model is, but even that can’t last forever.

Highlights for the first half of 2017:

Ford Mustang

Sales of the segment-leading Ford Mustang fell by almost a third in the second quarter of 2017, an even worse performance than at the beginning of the year, although the recent facelift should help the ‘Stang put some clear air between itself and its pursuers

By comparison, Chevrolet Camaro had a great second quarter, with sales growing by 16.5%, almost erasing the 17.7% loss experienced in the first quarter, and allowing the model to squeeze back ahead of the evergreen Dodge Challenger which outsold it for the first time ever in Q1

Relative to the Top 3 “pony cars” sales of the remaining models in the segment look puny, and they are once again led by the rapidly-aging Nissan 370Z

What follows is a series of models from premium manufacturers, with the Mercedes-Benz SLC once again outselling the Porsche Boxster and Cayman, Audi TT and the soon-to-be-replaced BMW Z4, although as has been the case in recent years the Porsche twins sold more when their sales are combined

From amongst these cars it’s the Cayman that suffered the worst drop in sales, 42%, suggesting that customers are not keen on the new turbo flat-4 engine

Towards the end is the once-popular Hyundai Genesis Coupe, that the brand has pretty much stopped selling now that it spun off the Genesis as its own premium brand, and the Alfa Romeo 4C, whose sales don’t seem to have benefitted from the reverse-halo effect of a popular new cheaper stablemate, the Giulia

About Krzysztof Wozniak

Kriss grew up in Poland reading German car magazines, before moving to England and graduating to the British magazines, which he still considers the best in the world and continues reading them after he'd moved to the US. In college he promised himself he's buy himself a used Porsche before he turned 30 (not to be accused of having a mid-life crisis), but instead family needs dictated a Subaru Outback. Still waiting for that perfect moment to buy a used 2008-ish Cayman...
You can find all his articles Here.